MayFlower InfoScout
Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery from Organizational Information
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Key issues concerning monitoring the business information that drives decision making.
December, 2000
MayFlower Software
30 Great Road
Acton, MA, USA 01720
Voice: (978) 371-3900
Fax: (978) 371-1696
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview ...... 2
Getting ROI2 on the Assets of the Corporation...... 3
Why Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery?...... 4
Why Current Approaches are Backwards...... 5
Obstacles to Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery...... 6
Costs of Current Way...... 7
Requirements for Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery ...... 8
TellMeWareTM Approach to Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery...... 9
Frequently Asked Questions about InfoScout?...... 10
Scenarios...... 11
Sales Watch...... 11
Engineering Watch...... 11
Other InfoScout Scenarios...... 12
Accounting Manager...... .11
Men’s Furnishings Buyer...... 11
Customer Service Manager...... 11
Marketing Manager...... 11
Loan Officer...... 11
Insurance Company Salesperson...... 11
Purchasing Agent Manager...... 11
Purchasing Manager...... 11
Financial Manager...... 11
InfoScout: A Technical Overview...... 13
How to Begin with InfoScout...... 14
Other InfoScout Features...... 15
Overview
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The MayFlower Sentinel InfoScout exists for one reason: To deliver concise, timely organizational information to individuals responsible for corporate decision making.
This paper reviews why that is important to any organization, and presents information about the InfoScout approach to monitoring internal business information to provide timely information to those individuals who need it.
Getting ROI2 on the Assets of the Corporation
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Huge volumes of information has been gathered, at a great cost to the organization. This information is an asset of the corporation. As such, it needs to provide a return to the organization. And it already does. Most of the information is derived from operational systems that produce value to the organization, such as producing an invoice. The information does not disappear with the printing of the invoice. It still has value. Thus we have the concept of ROI2 Return on the Information Investment. This return takes two forms: Hard dollar return (e.g. improved productivity) and soft dollar return (e.g. better
running of business operations via timely information delivery).
Why Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery?
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Due to the economic constraints of programming and the efficiencies of creating large reports that serve a broad audience of readers, current information distribution methodologies tend towards more standardization and less flexibility. The attempt to define user requirements and build reporting programs that meet these requirements for several years does not adequately address the ever changing business landscape. What is deemed important during the specification stage oftentimes is unimportant once the final reporting product is delivered. This is a problem that often and unfairly gets blamed on the internal IS group. The real problem is the unavailability of a flexible information delivery mechanism that allows information customers to change their mind as frequently as the business landscape changes. Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery works to resolve the problem by letting individuals receive just the information needed for the performance of their business function.
Why Current Approaches are Backwards
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Most reporting approaches requires the recipient to “look for” the information, and draw conclusions relevant to his business function. This is an inconvenient approach, not at all aligned with the philosophy of modern business, forever looking for “low maintenance” approaches to business problems.
What is needed, and to date has not been filled, is an approach to information delivery where the recipient does not “look for” the information, but where the information “looks for” the recipient. This is a complete reversal of the current methodology, and nothing less than this will accomplish the important goal of relevant information delivery.
Obstacles to Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery
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Paper reporting systems
Paper reporting systems are the medium for most people to receive corporate information. This causes three obstacles: Rigidity, fixedness and lack of currency. Rigidity means that reporting relationships are pre-set, and do not offer easy means of reviewing this information. Fixedness means that changing these relationships may take weeks or months to complete. Both exacerbate currency, which is the ability to reflect current business and economic conditions in time to act beneficially to the business.
Disparate Data Sources
Another impediment to Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery is the disparate ways information is collected. This is done for good operational reasons. Some of the best sources of Organizational information are derived from On-Line systems which organize information in ways that are excellent for order entry (for example), but poor for reporting.
Ad Hoc Query Tools
Disparate Data Sources cause all casual users to throw up their hands in frustration. It takes a database expert to understand where all of the corporate information assets are located. To run an ad-hoc query tool requires more knowledge about where the information is located than a non-IS person should have to know, or would want to know. Most of these tools will not easily understand the database structures of Lotus Notes.
As Ad Hoc Query Tools have become easier, they have increased the ease with which these ad hoc query tools allows a user to retrieve the wrong information from the wrong sources. Conclusions based on erroneous information are always and will always be erroneous. Query results are not easily disseminated, except in paper format.
Costs of Current Way
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To appreciate the value of Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery, it is important that a cost/benefit be undertaken. Otherwise, why change anything?
Estimate the cost to the organization of providing information to the various internal business functions today. Over time. Then look at:
Hard Costs
Reports
- Inital Report Creation (programming)
- Maintenance (changing the report to adapt to changing business requirements).
- Physical distribution of the reports to many recipients
- Disposal of the paper report
Manual reports
- Effort to create Word Processed reports
- Effort to create Spreadsheet based reports
Soft Costs
- Opportunity Costs
- Missed business trends
- “Late to the game”
- Lost Business
- Bad decisions
Now for the really excruciatingly painful part. Look at how much of this is done more than once. That estimate of duplicated effort is 100% wasted money. And worse yet, some of the information doesn't agree because it was derived differently. Finally, look at the cost to disseminate that information to others via memos, informational meetings, and informal meetings. It is staggering. And it is happening in every organization that has over five employees.
Requirements for Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery
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MayFlower has developed the Requirements to achieve the objectives of Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery. It is based on practical experience helping large corporate organizations achieve the benefits of Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery.
End Users
End Users are characterized as demanding ever more varied information to meet the requirements of their functions. They require maximum flexibility and are seldom satisfied by current information availability. They want more.
- Must have flexibility
- Must have variety.
- Require minimal training
- No direct access to On-Line systems required
- Require minimal MIS support
- No need to learning programming or scripting language
MIS
MIS is characterized by being swamped with the plethora of requests. They cannot possibly anticipate or respond to all the varied requests for permutations of information. Their strongest capability is that they know where all the correct information exists within their data vaults.
- Create and manage the information Vault
- Act as Librarian
- Must not have major negative impact on Network utilization
- Must be a client-server approach to minimize user waiting and Network utilization
- Must integrate tightly with Lotus Notes
Laptops
The most prevalent problem with laptop computing is the time and disk space required to adequately support remote replication. Laptop users often only need abstract or summary information to support their business functions.
Therefore, all of the features available in the office must be available on the road, at home, or at customers. It does not matter where you are physically.
- Results must be available to disseminate to Laptop computers, on a partial or complete basis
- Laptops must be able to remotely request Personalized Reports without being On-Line
Security
Security is critical to protect the Information Asset of the corporation. Any Personalized Reporting process must protect unauthorized access to the business asset.
- Who can receive the information contained in a Personalized Report
InfoScout Approach to Personalized Information Retrieval & Delivery
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As mentioned before, most reporting approaches requires the recipient to “look for” the information, and draw conclusions relevant to his business function. This is an inconvenient approach, not at all aligned with the philosophy of modern business, forever looking for “low maintenance” approaches to business problems.
What InfoScout finally provides is an approach to information delivery where the recipient does not “look for” the information, but where the information “looks for” the recipient.
Once the information has found the recipient, it tells you where to go today (politely). That is why InfoScout is the first product in a new category of software called “TellMeWareTM”. The characteristics of this software are that it fully knows your Personalized Information Requirements (your Information PIQture), and tells you where to go today. TellMeWareTM turns the information management paradigm upside down. The information tells you what you should do with itself. This action-oriented approach replaces a host of other pretenders to the throne of decision support systems with the only real answer.
Frequently Asked Questions about InfoScout.
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What is InfoScout?
InfoScout is a completely new class of software, called “TellMeWare”TM. MayFlower has developed it to be at your beck and call, and help sift through the many megabytes of data accumulating in your Organization each and every day, and “tell you where” to go (to find the information).
What kinds of things will it do?
InfoScout will tell you what's new relative to your business function. Like a good administrative assistant, InfoScout knows what you like to watch for, and retrieves it to your workspace.
How does it work for the User?
You probably always know where your electronic mailbox is located. InfoScout adds a second critical icon to your workspace: The Watch database. In the Watch database, you set par values, or thresholds of when you want to see an item.
Scenarios
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“Watches” are created by users to perform specific tasks. The following examples show some of the ways that they help the people do their job by telling them what to do.
Sales Watch
Problem:
A salesperson wants to watch her account sales for significant activity.
How she used to do it:
Her Administrative Assistant uses a highlighter pen to mark those accounts whose sales have increased or decreased by 10%. The Administrative Assistant uses a word processor and creates a report that lists the accounts and the amounts they have changed.
How the Salesperson does it now:
A "Sales Watch" reviews daily sales numbers for specific accounts, and logs them in his InfoScout work queue.
What if she needs more information?
If she needs more information, she can double click on a picture of a
piece of paper (a doclink) on his Front Page to review the Watch details referencing the customer in question.
What if she wants to change the criteria?
She can change the delta of the report by changing the Sales Watch agent. This is done as she might have created a paper work order previously. She changes a number on a form.
Scenarios, continued
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Engineering Watch
Problem:
An engineer wants to watch his accounts for important changes.
How he used to do it:
His Administrative Assistant uses a highlighter pen to mark those accounts or locations at which important changes have occurred. The Administrative Assistant uses a word processor and creates a report to the account engineer that lists the accounts and the important changes that have occurred.
How he does it now:
An "Important Changes Watch" reviews important changes for specific accounts, and logs them in his Watch work queue.
What if he needs more information?
If he needs more information, he can double click on a picture of a piece of paper (a doclink) on his Front Page to review the Watch details referencing the important changes in question.
What if he wants to change the criteria?
He can change important by changing the "Engineering Watch". This is done as he might have created a paper work order previously. He changes a number on a form. He does not have to be a programmer to tell the Agent what to do (just as he did not have to be a programmer to tell his Administrative Assistant what to do).
Other InfoScout Scenarios
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These scenarios are representative of the types of things people Watch for. Picture each of these managers entering the office in the morning and reviewing any “hot” items before the hustle and bustle of the day begins:
- An Accounting Manager wants a Watch of all Accounts Receivable older than 90 days.
- A Men’s Furnishings Buyer in a department store chain wants a Watch for any item whose sales dropped from last week to begin a markdown process to clear out slow moving items.
- A Customer Service Manager wants a Watch of all customer service issues that have not been resolved in 7 days, to enable her to escalate these problems.
- A Marketing Manager wants a list of all products that are below the company’s standard sales margin percentage, to better help manage low performing product lines.
- A Loan Officer at a lending institution want a Watch of all non-performing loans, to quickly establish an action plan before they default.
- An Insurance Company Salesperson wants a list of all policies up for renewal in 90 days, to make sure these accounts are not lost to competition.
- A Purchasing Agent want a Watch of all purchase orders requisitions made for vendors that he manages.
- A Purchasing Manager wants a Watch of all purchase orders placed for more than $50,000, so that she can approve or disapprove them.
- An Financial Manager wants a Watch of all new purchase orders placed this week so that he can manage cash and provide for cash to pay the incoming invoices.
- Everyone at a large manufacturer wants a Watch of today’s follow-up items taken from various databases.
InfoScout: A Technical Overview
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InfoScout consists of an important piece of software, called an Agent. Think of agents as Administrative Assistants (electronic versions) that never tire. Your Administrative Assistant goes home at 5:00, but the Sentinel InfoScout Agent is still on the job, watching what is important to you, and placing that information at your fingertips for tomorrow.
Two main software processes exist to provide the Watch results to the end user:
- The Watch Builder, which creates the Watch result set based on a user request; and
The Front Page Builder, which assembles the individual Watches into a “Front Page” (some think of it as a table of contents). This one page summary of “What’s Hot” contains doclinks to the detailed Watch result set.
Figure 1 Sentinel InfoScout Product Architecture
Creating a “Watch”
Users create, using Notes, a Watch request form. This is routed, using Notes, to the Watch Engine. This engine continually monitors this request database. Once it finds “something to do”, like a Watch, it starts collecting the data and creating your Watch results. This Watch (actually a doclink to this Watch result set) will be delivered into your Front Page tomorrow (or today, if you prefer).
Creating a Front Page
Front pages operate as a separate process that browses all new personal Watches and "picks up" all information that has been created by the Watch tasks since the last time a Front Page was created. Typically, Front Pages are created before the workday begins. Looking at a workday of 9 AM to 5 PM, most people create their home page at 8 AM, in ample time to review it for 8:30. For the earlybirds, this can be adjusted to any time, such as 6 AM.
Sample InfoScout Front Page
Figure 2 Typical InfoScout Front Page with doclinks to detailed information.
Scheduling Watches
Once a user decides to continually Watch for certain conditions, he can schedule the Watch to run whenever desired. These Watches will run on their own, whenever they are scheduled to run. Many watches may run during the day, at all different times. These Watches "collect" in the personal databases throughout the day.
Watches can be designated for more than one person. This is done from a lookup against a view of people who have a Front Page form composed. A separate administrative task populates the Front Page list from the N&A book.
Watches are scheduled for days of the Week. Monthly Watches are run only on days that match the day number on the form.
Watches can be either ODBC or Notes.
Watches can be either ODBC or Notes. This opens up the data available to be “watched” to most of the data collected in the organization. This makes InfoScout an ideal tool, as it can look for “soft” data in Lotus Notes or “hard” data in traditional data collection systems.
Notes Watches
Notes watches can be either full text or "Comparison" types. The Watch form offers sections for both. Full text assumes that the database is full text indexed. If not, InfoScout will report an error code to the Watch administrator or user, depending on the user preferences.
Watch Expiration Dates
Watches have expiration dates. All Watch forms will say, in small letters at the end of the watch:This Watch expires on xx/xx/xx. Click here to renew this watch. This will extend the Watch another 30 days. Click here to make this watch run indefinitely. On the last day, it will say, This is your last time you will receive this Watch. Click here to renew this watch. Click here to make this watch run indefinitely.